Let's give a warm Georgia Tech Welcome
to you John when said.

Thank you for
that Can everyone hear me all right

all right good how's everyone doing.

All right well I'm John and I'm here to
talk to you about entrepreneurship and

I had named it take your shot because
taking your shot means going and

grabbing that opportunity you
know claiming your destiny.

You know preparing yourself
positioning yourself to look for

and wait for that shot.

So before we get started I was just
going to tell you a little bit about me.

And N.P.I..

You know I'm C.E.O. and founder of N.P.I.
Financial funny enough we're not really

a financial company traditionally
that you might think of but

we do help our clients save money and
we do it by using pricing data and

vendor intelligence to make sure
they're getting the very best deal so

we help companies like these.

Be protected and
save money against companies like those.

So we.

We've been on national news
broadcasts like C.N.N. SI and B C Fox

and we've won numerous awards which the
one I'm most proud of is actually the best

place to work in Atlanta for two years
running we're really excited about that.

It's highly coveted by companies
here in Atlanta and for

us to be one or
was was a big thing for us.

So through the twelve plus years
that we've been in business we've

worked with over four
hundred fifty clients.

And we like to think that we really
have brought a lot of value to them.

All right so that's a little.

But about M.P.I..

Now.

You know I look over the audience here and

it looks like mostly students I too
was a student at Georgia Tech and

while I was here I so
wanted to be an entrepreneur.

If there was a class with
entrepreneurship in the title I took

that if there was a speaker that
was on that topic I went and

there's some good stuff I learned.

You know a lot of things I heard
were the were like how entrepreneurs

always sweat about payroll or
how to find funding and funding and

all those things are important but
what I really wanted to hear was what

you know what's kills did it take to start
what traits did I need to possess and

so today's talk I was going to kind
of walk you through some of the.

The tenets that I found important for
me but first let me just start with this.

You know this is.

You read the Bible now you know.

You probably have a ten dollar
bill in your pocket to write.

So it's not George Washington oeuvre
John Adams It's Alexander Hamilton and

he is on the ten dollar bill but

he wasn't president what do you
think he's on the ten dollar bill.

I mean he.

You know you got George Washington on
the one dollar bill he's the father of

our country we got Abe Lincoln
on the five dollar bill he was

you know arguably the best
president we had and but

here's out of winter Hamilton hanging
out on a ten dollar bill why.

For one he was a fighter
in the American Revolution.

He was George Washington's top aide.

He was an architect of the Constitution.

He.

Designed and.

The federal monetary system which was was
crucial It sounds like a boring monetary

thing but it's actually crucial because
it that united our country which was at

the time a bunch of fractured
states it united them financially

which led to them being united politically
which then created the most powerful

country in the world but what a lot of
people don't know is Alexander Hamilton

was actually born in the West Indies
he was orphaned penniless

he found his way to New York City
like age twenty where he knew no one.

And in a few years he wound up as.

George Washington's right hand
man how does that happen.

Well some of the traits he possessed was
he was scrappy he was hungry he wanted

to leave his mark he
wanted to take his shot.

And you know he's been a role model for so

many entrepreneurs' and
faction of the founder of.

Has if you go to the founder of movers
Twitter handle he has an image of

Alexander Hamilton on his page you know
he calls them America's first catalyst

that's the type of impression that if you
really know Hamilton that he that he left.

So when we think about his story.

It's a good time to think about
your story you know what.

How does how do you want your
story to go because now is

an important time you're in
a very enviable position.

You know Warren Buffett says that if
you are born speaking English you

you've won the lottery I
can tell you if you're

a student at Georgia Tech you've hit
the Powerball because you're perfectly

positioned to do pretty much whatever you
want to do if you put your mind to it.

So I was going to share
a little bit about my story and

highlight some core
tenets that I found that.

Help me along my way and
we'll see where we go from there.

So you know if I don't know if
you've heard of my accent but

I'm actually from Alabama I was born in
Tuscaloosa spent the first half of my

childhood in on a cattle
farm in northern Alabama.

At age eleven my mom who was a hippie
thought it was a good idea to move me in

her up to a mountaintop and
turn a see where we lived in this.

Cabin thing I'll show you.

Without running water electricity.

I was homeschooled we had hiked forty
five minutes up the hill from where we

parked our car.

With groceries or whatever we needed
to take up the mountain you know

that's where you know we had
to walk up forty five minutes.

We had to bathe in springs
you know Cold Springs are.

Like fifty seven degrees you know what
that does that chill of the water does to

a young growing boy self-sustaining.

But you know I had to persevered I had
to challenge myself to stay positive.

And and it wasn't easy you know there's
a lot of downturns that happen when you've

got a single parent only child family and
not a lot of money to go around and

you know my mom bless her heart she was
the hell bent to do this journey and and

I had to do it with her but it was not.

You know I found ways to enjoy
myself like honey and camping but

I would much rather had heat and
a T.V. and

dare I say an Atari video game
which was the seventy's you know.

You guys probably don't
know what authorities are.

But.

But you know I was a Four Seasons.

Hotel kind of guy before I even knew what
that meant I know what it means now but

I didn't know what it meant then but
I certainly was.

My mom seemed to be fine with living
in this way and she just you know.

Did her best to get us through it.

You know but she seemed to just come
across the worst luck she had she had

bad car karma she would you know.

She would drive back one day and like
the driver side window would be completely

shattered and where it had been perfectly
fine when she left that morning she came

back and there's not a shard of glass and
she seemed unsure of what happened and

we'd wrap it up and you know keep it
you know from the rain getting in but

you can see out of it and but
that's the way we live and you know

there's not enough money to replace and
we had to just live that way but

it was what it taught me was
that I just I had to just.

Get my way you know find a way out of this
you know get control of my my life and

at the time it was through good grades and
I just focused on getting the doing

the best I could at school and just
keeping positive just getting through it.

And so I got into Georgia Tech which was.

Was exciting for
me Atlanta was a big city and.

And I did I did start summer quarter I
don't know if any of you had to do that

but it's it means that in qualify for
you know a fall quarter slot so

I come in summer quarter but I was fine
with that you know when I say I left

after graduation of high school I mean the
morning after graduation of high school

not new not later that day that morning
I packed up my car and drove to Atlanta.

And it was.

It was exciting I mean
Atlanta was the big city.

But I arrive talking of funny and

you know saying things like Would you turn
off that lot and could I have a spry.

And so I had to correct that.

And but it was exciting because
Georgia Tech was full of

very smart people working hard to do their
best and that's what I wanted to do and

I remember a moved into Harrison dorm.

If you can picture that
is a thing still here.

And that morning I woke up there was
the first morning in like seven years

that I didn't have to
build a fire to keep warm.

And so it was like heaven like and
finally I did it I got out of it.

And.

And I thought back at that
moment that life could be so

different if I hadn't
persevered through that.

And so I you know think about the first
core tenets that I want to want to share

with you is that STAY POSITIVE
be optimistic despite whatever

challenges come it's a mark
of a good entrepreneur.

You know Steve Jobs says that.

What separates successful
entrepreneurs from non-successful is

perseverance That's his quote.

So I think that's enough for
me to believe it.

So.

I.

Graduate Georgia Tech.

And I start interviewing.

And in my mind I think I want to go into
finance I have that movie Wall Street

going through my head and I want to go.

To the finance world.

And I go through my interviews and

partway through I said you know what I've
been talking about being an entrepreneur

or maybe I should do this and
I didn't know much I'd gone to school.

I've been a lifeguard for
a couple of summers and

I said you know what I'm going to
start up a pool management company.

And.

I was just so you know just charged
had to do something entrepreneurial.

And so I started up community
pool management C.P.M..

Two inspiring but it was what I did and
I was selling to subdivisions

that were sprouting up
around suburban Atlanta.

And.

And I realized I didn't even
know how to run a business.

And so it I remember the day it dawned
on me I was like I need to get back to

interview and get back to companies.

And it it reminds me of.

I'm on a roundtable with some
entrepreneurs who are helping early

stage on for nerds get off the ground and
you know I was talking to a university

president that's part of the roundtable
and said you know all recent grads

You know they want to
become entrepreneurs.

And and when you ask them he says

it's because they want to make money
which is which when I hear that I don't

think that's a bad motive I think
it's a great motive but they but

what he added was that they all want
to like start the next new hot out and

that's where I take a little bit exception
to it because I don't think to be

an entrepreneur you need to start the next
two or you can be an entrepreneur in a big

company you can be an entrepreneur
in a midsize company and

how I know this is as I was struggling
about do I go on with my interviews with

finance houses or
do I go start a pool management company.

I decided to go and learn the ropes first.

And so when I resumed my interviews.

A guy.

My offer that I was shooting for
from Merrill Lynch which

was like the top place to go.

And and I was elated upon hearing
the news that I had been accepted and

they said look you know you start August
first it's about a month from now will we

you know we we recruit in classes and
we'll take you up to Princeton and

start training so I was like great so
I have a month to kill so

in that month I came across
a company called Sun data there in

north of Atlanta and they sold I.B.M.
hardware when I say I.B.M.

hardware that's like mainframes it's
like you know big honking computers

and it was small it was like two hundred
people and you could feel the energy and

spear when you walked in and I was sat in
that lobby wait for that interview and

people were buzzing by and just super.

Jazzed about being there and
I compare that to what I felt when I was

at Merrill Lynch interviewing there and it
was you know everybody's buttoned down and

just you know very serious and
and and that's not what I

wanted so I learned more about the Sunday
opportunity turned out to be great it was

great starting pay double that what
Merrill Lynch was pain and it was.

Great travel perks I was going to
be selling I.B.M. gear to Europe so

I get to travel to Europe loved it and so

I did it I took some data over Maryland.

I called the Maryland guy and
he's like what.

But it felt right it felt
like the right thing to do so

it turned out to be fantastic.

And it was a type of job that I got to
exercise some entrepreneurial muscles.

I was a broker I got to build
my book a business I got to.

You know I did build up my clientele and
but

I had an organization to support me and
I just remembered you know I had a manager

who's teach me the ropes and and
it was silly things that like

you know I had never written
a business letter to a client.

And it sounds easy from
where I'm at now but

back then I just you know I didn't even
know what was appropriate what was it.

And I remember you know trying to figure
out how to in the business letter.

You know do you put sincerely
you know yours truly.

And they were like No no just put you know

please feel free to contact me if you
have any questions like THAT'S IT MY GOD

brilliant you know because
when you don't know something.

It feel so you know everything feels like
it's genius when it's given to you so

I just absorb all that and
the were the little things that helped

that help makes a person professional.

That I wouldn't have done if I had
just gone straight out of college.

So I continued to work with
some data was learning

I was taking any opportunity a place today
you want to handle this I'm like Get it

give it to me I want to and
it really you know.

Allowed me to expand my capabilities so
when I joined Siegel

software in one thousand nine hundred
five which was a start up and

they wanted to hire people and
open offices I was all in.

And then they said how about.

How about.

Opening a an office in London.

And you know if you were to ask one
thousand nine hundred nine recent grad

John one set to open an office in
London I would have withered and died.

But when one thousand nine hundred eighty
seven John Wayne said heard it I was like.

A lot of it.

At least halfway qualified I had
done business in Europe check.

Had.

Opened offices and hired people checked.

And.

And so I said yes to.

The one thing that I was not prepared for
was.

Driving on the wrong side of the road.

Which you know how many people
here have driven in England.

And how do you find it easy.

It's a mess everything
is counterintuitive so

just picture the fact I've got a picture
of the world on the right side of the car.

And you're on the cars on
the left side of the road and so

like to turn right you're turning
across oncoming is just it's a mess and

you see fuck up.

Yeah OK it blows me away.

That they let Americans fly overseas.

Jet lag.

Read it from lack of sleep in gallon
of wine and say hey here's in a car.

And but that's what they did on my
inaugural trip and so I I google search

one thousand nine hundred seven Jetta
because that's what they had given me and

it was a diesel five speed and you know so

imagine all the things we just talked
about being on the wrong side of road and

then having to shift with this and
I can even make the motion and.

But it sticks with me is one of these
defining moments of where like I just want

to go cry because and I'm a driver I love
to drive but I remember sitting in that

hotel room I had flown over to
open up the office I have to go.

Find a.

Live locate an office buy computers and
printers hire people

sell the companies and
I can't and I'm afraid to drive.

And I would just sit in my hotel room just
psyche myself up when I've got to do it

I've just got to do it and
I did it and it was not pretty and

I had people yelling at me.

They somehow knew I was American I don't
know if it's because my driving or

my haircut or what but

they you know they would kill stupid
Yank in those kind of things but.

But afterwards you know after about I
guess is after about three or four months

I had kind of you know I was ready to like
turn on the radio and and get through it.

But.

I want to show you this license plate
because one of the things that SIEGEL

that I really did even though I didn't own
Siegal it was not mine I treated it like I

did and whenever there was a new
product launch I was Mr and

certain product name and
if I was asked to.

Launch a new team I would go I was so

committed to it that I would put the name
this is this looks like blood and

but it's blue zone which was I
had on my car for two years.

As a as a sign of my
commitment to the team.

And so the second courtin it's that
I wanted to share from that chapter

is take ownership even though you don't.

Always be learning.

Always shoe some curiosity
on what you're seeing.

Very strong traits for entrepreneurship.

So.

I was going to share about how N.P.R.

started Siegel had gone public
I had moved back from London I.

Market's a cool the you know the dot
com bubble had burst the Enron

disaster had just chilled the business.

Atmosphere and and so me and
another partner came up this idea that

we were going to change the world that
changed the way the world purchased I.T.

technology hardware software services
we've been selling it on the vendor side

for years we knew how the pricing
was all over the map and and

how Company A paid a different price for
the same product and company B.

did sometimes by two fold and
we wanted to go and

protect the buyers and so
we came up with the idea of negotiation

Partners Inc.

Which is funny because we're not
incorporated we were incorporated we

are an L.L.C. but we like the way
it sounded so we were M.P.I..

And.

I remember I remember that we.

We wanted to make a big splash so
we had chosen this conference.

It was a CIA conference there were no
C.E.O.'s or chief information officer so

we had chosen that conference and it was
fifty five thousand dollars so I took out

a second mortgage on my house in never
forget stroke stroke and that check for

fifty five thousand that's a lot of money
when you don't have any money coming in.

And we showed up to this conference
we spent all the money for

the sponsorship so
we had no money for the booth.

If you've ever been to a trade show
it's dozens and dozens of booths and

you know the typical list of vendors
Microsoft Oracle they're all there

with their fancy booths and
lights and and flat screens and

all we had was you know the slot for
the booth which was curtains

a table two chairs that most
people kind of moved to the side.

When you know they moved the booth in and
we had a little white sign that said

a little see was really just help
sponsors locate their slot but

we left it there because
that was all we had but we.

But we we just had so many ideas we
just wanted to talk to C.E.O.'s and

just you know tell them what our
company was all about and so

we talked to over one hundred C.E.O.'s and
they would ask some would

ask you know were your booth and
we just you know we said look.

It was supposed to be shipped to Orlando
and I went ended up in Ontario will be

this we made it up but that's kind of that
guerilla type entrepreneurism that it

sometimes takes to get through the early
days but the the CIA loved it.

So much so that at the end of the
conference the the C.E.O. voted on what

they thought the best solution that
they sought to show was and we won.

And I mean we beat out I.B.M. as a P.C.
all the big names that were there and

this to me a little company.

One best solution and it put us on
the map and we landed twelve clients.

And let me tell you something the most
important thing to an entrepreneur

is not any of the core
tenets it's having clients

because there isn't what's going to keep
you alive and what keeps you in business.

And so we landed twelve.

And a hard hard work began and

we had to find an office we
had to build out our processes

we had a large a marketing plan we had all
these things that we had to do we have and

let us not forget that we had to
deliver quality service to our clients.

Which we did.

But what happens then is
once you have people and

you have a mission
a culture starts to bloom

in either the culture is going to be
a good cultures could be a bad Culch.

Hopefully you can make it a good life.

And what we realized is
we needed a purpose.

Because if you work hard without
a purpose you're stressed out.

If you work hard and you have a perch
purpose that's called passion.

So I don't know if you guys have seen.

Simon cynic's TED talk start
with the why probably one of

the biggest highest
viewed TED talk there is.

If you guys haven't made it a part
of your routine to watch Ted talks

you should because it's a great glimpse
of what goes on in the real world.

Anyway he had the what the how in the why.

And just to give you kind of
an example of what that means is.

We use Apple you know they're what
is they make hardware computers and

devices that's their what
their how is great design

cool organ omics easy to use
intuitive that's there how but

why do they do it and
it's there why that separates them from

Dell DELL has the same what and
how as Apple.

But Apple is a lot cooler and about one
hundred times more valuable than Dell.

So.

What Apple's why why is is they challenge

the status quo which we
all love they make you

think differently they had a whole ad
campaign think different this is ten years

ago they had like Albert Einstein with
the i Pod if you guys remember that but

what they were speaking to was their
purpose they weren't saying that the i Pod

holds a thousand songs they were saying
think differently that's there why

so with M.P.I. are what and
how and why are what is.

We help companies save money are how is
we do it with data and intelligence but

what is our why.

And that why is.

It you know this passion for

protecting our clients from overspending
with these with the vendor machine that's

out there it's leveling the playing
field against vendors and companies

buy off on that because we work with
companies like Boeing Morgan Stanley G.E.

G.E. has a Harvard M.B.A.
in their purchasing department.

What does you know M.P.I.
going to bring to them.

Well they bought into
the passion that we have for

delivering the tools they
need to to save the money.

So as the culture emerges
you've got to have a purpose.

It's very important.

So.

You know with.

What I think is funny is you know I had
started this I mean this title of the talk

was you know entrepreneurship you know
take your shot now may be the best time.

To start your business.

And I've just spent twenty minutes
telling you now it's taken

twenty years to become an entrepreneur so

let me clarify that a little bit
first of all it is the best time.

It's in this day and age it's easier now
to start a business than ever before.

For a few reasons.

One is technology has developed
to a point where it's not.

You don't have to invent
technology you can just simply

find a unique application for
that technology.

That solves the real world problem.

It's so much easier than Thomas Edison
with magnets and you know

making things work like he had to
do back then now you can just.

Figure out a new way to do something
using sensors and everyone.

Cell phones as an example.

The other thing that's
changed it's crowdsourcing.

You know what used to take a whole lot of
money to to develop something now can be

done quickly cheaply you can run
a whole team of developers for

pennies on the dollars you can rent
P.H.D.'s by the hour there is not a.

In expertise you can attain worldwide now
I have a friend who's also a Georgia Tech

graduate who's been a very successful
entrepreneur he has sold two companies.

He just built an application entire
application for eight hundred dollars.

It's crazy.

I mean that would have taken
tens of thousands of dollars or

more you know just a few years ago.

The other another reason why it's easier
is this notion of crowdfunding I think you

guys are probably heard about Kickstarter
you know pretty well what what I what I

found fascinating about crowdfunding is
it's not just about the money you can

start a campaign and raise money
it's a way to to vet your ideas.

Market test your concept to
a crowd have them give feedback

be the early buyers even to your products
and raise a little money along the way and

it's not uncommon for venture capital
theses to tell you tell you what but

we're not interested go on crowdfunding.

Sites and raise money that way in the
watch how the responses on your campaign

and if it's great they'll pounce and
offer you ten million dollars.

So it's a great it's a new way to
to leverage some of the online

communities which that's
the other one communities.

Communities are different and

crowds Crowther is like
everyone on line communities.

Or pulled from crowds So for example

if you have a new product
that that you want to

get feedback on communities will provide
that support communities are compelled by

your idea they're they believe
in what you're doing and

it's what you can so communities can
actually you know lift you up share

your ideas with their networks and
allow things to go viral.

That didn't exist.

Not so long ago you know Facebook
is a great example of this you know

they launched in Harvard only Harvard
had it and that was popular and

then they just released it to
Ivy League and that was popular and

then they released it to the university
system I mean I remember clearly when I

couldn't join Facebook because you
had to have a dot edu address.

Zuckerberg didn't know it but it was
he was leverage Gene community dynamics

when he launched Facebook and
he's on our i Phone.

So you know there's a lot of these type of

nuances that are around today.

I wanted to.

Show you the book I read about
a year ago that really if I will.

If I was to sell and just be nothing
else to do I would go through in.

Take each chapter it's a guide book on
how to start a business in this day and

age and I would notate every chapter and
live you know live to it so

if you're interested that's where
I'm pulled it from so the third and

final third of tenets there is
boldness risk taking and culture.

And now we're back to Hamilton.

I think a while love the story so
much there's a Broadway play that.

That is like the top selling Broadway play
that actually puts his story to hip hop.

And it's fantastic and but
I think why I love that story so

much is that he came from nothing and
had no reason to hope for

anything and
just from sure scrappiness and

hunger he attained great accomplishments.

And not only does you know not only did
he help birthed this nation he really

embodies what the American spirit is so
we're lucky because not all countries

are like this and we're lucky to live in
America where we can even have ideas and

have the possibility.

To put them into reality.

So.

Kind of the final slide
out that's all them.

The tenets and one.

So I started this exercise when you know
I had decided to talk about this with

you guys I started this with you
know what are the the traits that I

think I mean the most.

You know you've heard my
story it's what really is

I think got me through all the trials and
tribulations but it's kind of now

your time to think about what your story
what would you want your story to be

how what traits are you
going to bring to the table.

And you know the the future is yours.

And that's it thank you.

One thousand.

A start you have any
questions with questions.

So you mentioned how you your company was
named two years in a row as the best place

to work for Atlanta I mean just in terms
of like your culture is like your why or

how your company operates with and
what do you think maybe you guys won't

like what how do you think you guys when
they lose it how people interact inside

are they given opportunities express
themselves like what do you think

do you guys where it's a great question
and it's and I could probably go on for

a long time about about give you a couple
of nuggets here you know one is.

You know you can put your values out on
your website you can marvel in your for

your it doesn't really matter your values
are set by who you hire who you fire.

And you know in twenty fifteen M.P.I.
you know we're we're under fifty people

we hired seven people we hired
seven people we fired seven people.

And for different reasons but we owe it
to our team that we only want a great fit

because a C. player will make
an A player play like a B. player.

And we only want a player and so people
feel that so that's one of the others

we're kind of a work hard play hard kind
of company you know we we work hard but

if we if we hold ourselves accountable we
always set out quarterly goals and for

every goal that we hit we get a half
day Friday meaning that we shut down

the company have today Friday so
everyone's trying to hit all the goals so

we can get most Fridays off half day so
we do little things like that.

We also put big goals out there for

the year and you know typically we.

Will.

Like you know every At the end of every
year January becomes a planning month and

we have a kickoff.

And.

And the kickoff is either
held somewhere locally or

if we had a Gore will take the whole
company to New Orleans the whole company.

This past year twenty fifteen we set a big
goal thirty five percent of the stretch go

thirty five percent year over
year growth and we had it so

we took the whole company to Vegas.

That's a good way to get
the best place to work and.

Thank you for your question.

Could you go back to the story of when
you were at the conference that you

pay fifty five thousand dollars for
Could you elaborate on

what you use as a sales pitch to let
people know that you aren't just.

You are a company and not two guys in
a garage and then could you also a library

on was or anybody else in the market
space at the time doing what you do and

how did you fight them off and when it's
a great question and and I hope I can.

Live up to the to
the quality that question.

So that was two thousand and
three the conference happened.

Funny enough there wasn't really anyone
else in the market doing what we are doing

the closest was a company called Gartner.

And Gartner was a very large company
I don't know if you've heard of

Gartner there you know
multibillion dollar but

they have a practice of
kind of did what we did.

So we would say things like
we're a boutique specialized.

Firm that is Gartner like so

that would connect the listener's mind
to what we kind of where we sat and

we made up a couple of things
we said we had clients.

And we kind of did we had a great
relationship with the client we had back

and he said he would we actually did
some work with him but he never paid us.

But we used him.

As a reference and I think I want to
emphasize in the early days of a startup

you really gotta get clever
with how you do it no I don't.

Would never suggest that you should push
your integrity but you've got to get

Think of it like a guerrilla type you know
warfare I mean you're you're scrap on your

way and so we we got very clever
with our messaging on our website.

We we touted capabilities that
we'd never used before but

we felt we could live up to.

End this kind of the final part of your
question which is what did we tell Theo's

that you know who are these guys we
we said we were a small group so

we never like said we're forty people.

But you know we you know
we said that we were

working with several companies and
what we meant in our minds is

that we were simply you know talking
to them about working with them.

But the way that our service worked
it's not like it was you know.

In the early days we would only
get paid if we save them money so

we just wanted a shot at saving the money
and so it wasn't like they were paying for

something they would never
get it that makes it.

So it.

That it was it was a tense Conference

fifty five thousand dollars
Did I mention that figure.

So thank you for your question.

So you're talking about like all
the successes you've had your life and

you know getting into attack getting your
dream job getting a dream your job and

like all the stuff you have your company
you've the fifty five thousand paid off so

this might sound like a kind
of cliché question but

I think for the most of us we're going
to feel it's my life especially.

My people right now every has
the successes can you talk about something

like one of your biggest failures and
maybe more of how like you dealt with that

in the company itself to keep morale
up keep people believing in you and

you know keep investors on your side.

You know failure is a part of life
is a failure part of business and

certainly entrepreneurship and you've
got to get your mind in a place that you

don't see failures as a negative thing you
you fell forward that's a that's a Google

innovation principle they have eight
one of them is Phil Ford and fell fast.

And.

So you can see it's working this you know
I'm just giving you the rosy glasses kind

of view of everything but there was a lot
of problems and tribulations through my

career I think we got I think we got
lucky on a few things the landing twelve

clients of the first show was pretty
fortunate but I mean the stress that we

went through during that time was you know
and we lost deals we spent a lot of money

trying to win deals I mean there's a lot
a little failures through all of it but

you just keep selling forward and
just and just keep trying.

So what there if you go online and

I recommend you do this if you go online
and look at entrepreneurial quotes

about half of them talk about dealing
with the psychology of failing.

And it's uplifting because you
realize that you never truly fail.

You only learn you know in fact there's
one from Thomas Edison that said you know

I know I have never felt once I discovered
ten thousand ways that won't work.

So.

You know that's why you don't hear a lot
of failure talk out of me is because you

know I just keep trying to put it's
number you know it's the positive

keep positive now you don't want to beast.

You know artistic about it.

But but
you should you know that the best you know

learn from it take an opportunity for.

A.

Little So I'm wondering how old were
you when you left your job Siegel and

decided to start your own company and
how you balance between.

Having established yourself your dream
job and deciding to leave the company and

go ahead and take this big risk to start
your own company especially with the fifty

five thousand dollars price tag associated
with that I thought that was a big risk at

the time certainly with my
partner who was high risk.

So let's say so
to to answer your first question.

I was thirty five when I left Siegel.

And enough and
I looked younger like I remember feeling

a little bit out of place starting my own
company talking to C.E.O.'s about how

I could help them save money and
remember that.

When I started getting grey
hair I kind of enjoyed that.

But you know through.

You know you know through the.

I feel a little bit like it
was an enchanted startup phase

because I love laid out the Big Bad
fifty five thousand dollars and

there was a sort of cost to go along with
that so maybe the entire bet was seventy

five K. and I knew I could talk my way
back to SIEGEL If it didn't work so

I had that as a landing pad I would be
horrible if I burnt through that money and

had to go back to SIEGEL But
it was a seven five K. bet and

we got lucky and
we landed twelve seventy two K. clients.

So.
So whatever that works out to be.

It funded us for a year.

And that's a little bit.

Unusual but not always.

But that's why I like B. to B. B. to C.
you know business to consumer and

you know entrepreneur deals it seems like
it has a higher upside like you can just

scale like you know goes from ten
thousand dollars valuation to

sixty billion through B.
to C. but B. to B.

words business to business it's
a little more controlled and a little

more I feel like you know it's it's it
may not pay off as quickly you know and

scales as quickly as A B. C.
but I'm in control of it a little more.

You know I can it's really because the
thing about business to business is it's

really you with someone who's making
a decision and I love that dynamic.

Because yes because I
enjoy it to thank you for

your question.

Can you please talk about on your
experience being an entrepreneur in

another country abroad and how that she
changed your story when you returned home.

It was amazing.

It really was.

But first of all it if you ever have
a chance to work internationally.

Where.

It's really fun to be an ex-pat
that's what they call in.

And.

Because you're special
you're different you know.

When I was in London when I was
you know showing up first meetings

they would listen to
me a lot more closely.

So I get some water.

So.

But challenging your yourself and like
making that happen like the car story that

was one of you know one hundred things
that happened happens when you're there

and you kind of come back.

You know a different person.

And I've said before that you know before

that I was always felt like
an impostor you know like

like I shouldn't be because I was always
young doing the roles I was doing.

But when I came back from London and
I came back into the States I was a full

fledged executive and no one can take
that away from so what I would highly

recommend you you find
opportunities like that.

So I have a quick question for you you've
been to both types of start environments

products company or software products
company you know the services start

up could you just contrast the differences
between being as one off with your driver

services business or says Dr driver
products business and is it harder or

easier to either want it I guess the
second part of the question is that one of

the issues that you may have with service
businesses as the ability to scale it what

the end game is could you also comment on
that as a relates to what your plans or

regarding your company.

C. so services is easy because you can

make up your product as you go.

You know there are you know we're a very
niche specialized consulting company so

there's a little less of that but
you take a Leica devoid or accent your and

you know a client asked them can they
do X. and they say yes because they'll

figure it out one way or the other you
can't do that with a product company

Prada company very hard I mean we
had great developers at SIEGEL And

our product was rock solid and
water tight but there's issues you know.

There's issues with integration into
the environment there's you know bugs

there's new releases
there's customer support.

So if you're doing a start up I think it's
easier to start the services company but

you highlighted the biggest problem
with a services company and

that is it doesn't scale easy I mean.

You know you can grow one hundred two
hundred three hundred percent year

over year with a product company because
you can it's repeatable you know all

you're doing a ship in the air you're not
you know you don't have to add a body for

every time you ship a product.

And but that's not like it is on services
I mean you know for every big chunk of

growth you've got to add that
much amount of labor and

that increases your risk because you
know when you've got ten people and

you're making twenty percent
Eva that's pretty good.

But when you've got fifty people and
you're making fifteen fifteen percent even

and it can go this way or that way if
you miss a quarter with you know sells

you can you go in the red
real quick with the services.

At your aspirations as well what do you
do so you for me do you want to continue

to run a fifty percent company or
do you plan and significant growth and

how do you plan to exit the sort you do
you have an exit plan support a future.

Where you know they say entrepreneurs
their life span with a company is seven

years but if really pushed it's twelve
years so I'm on that twelve year and

I think I get why they say it because
you're just wanting to try some new things

every services company wants to be a
software company so we've tried on several

occasions to productize their service and
and poured some money into it.

We have a couple of ideas that we're
working on now thing having to do with.

Reselling some technology
that is complementary with.

Service you know if we keep going thirty
five percent year over year you know

I'm in no hurry to get out of it.

But you know if the right offer came along
and we have people buzz through every so

often but they're always
looking at a financial buy So

they're looking at you know
one to two times revenue or

five eight times Eva and
that to me just isn't that an enticing and

we've got a great company
a great team but.

But a strategic buyer could
change things you know because

you know we've had some big
consulting companies look at us and

say you know that's exactly what we're
looking for but they just haven't been

able to put all their you know ducks
in a row to to make it happen so

if a strategic buyer came by and
asked you know for five times revenue.

Or you know offered five times
revenue I think I would talk to.

Disembody as well as get them.

Focused on these court core tenets
of our entrepreneurship and

trying to compare when you were at
the U.K. with your your startup

essentially putting other people's
money at risk versus at N.P.

I weighed in your risk taking is about
your own money what are the implications

of risk in those two
different situations and

how you manage that risk.

It's almost a trade off
perfectly correlated.

You know for every bit of risk that you
take the reward is that much greater.

You know I mean I'll tell you
that the time I had the U.K.

some of the best times of had and
the team members that I met there and

that's one thing I wanted to point out
is money is great money is important

I can't remember what my deputies were
from ninety seven and ninety eight or

ninety nine you know or you know any.

Time as much as I remember
the team moments and the whens and

the failures that we had those are what
stick with me having said that

when it's your business and
it's your baby it means I mean it's so

much sweeter then when your back could
never have done what I'm doing now if I

hadn't gone through that
with my previous company.

Thank you John thanks for
coming to Georgia Tech today we thank you.